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What if you could listen to music or a podcast without headphones or earbuds and without disturbing anyone around you? Or have a private conversation in public without other people hearing you? […] research introduces a way to create audible enclaves – localized pockets of sound that are isolated from their surroundings. […]
We found a new way to send sound to one specific listener: through self-bending ultrasound beams and a concept called nonlinear acoustics.
Ultrasound refers to sound waves with frequencies above the human hearing range, or above 20 kHz. These waves travel through the air like normal sound waves but are inaudible to people. Because ultrasound can penetrate through many materials and interact with objects in unique ways, it’s widely used for medical imaging and many industrial applications.
In our work, we used ultrasound as a carrier for audible sound. It can transport sound through space silently – becoming audible only when desired.
